Following an investigation by the State Police, which involved officers from the Tuscan Cybersecurity Operations Center, 17 searches were carried out on as many suspects, four of whom were arrested, for possession and distribution of pornographic material produced with the use of minors.

Two of the arrests were made in Sardinia: a 46-year-old delivery driver from Castelsardo (under house arrest) and a 53-year-old mechanic from Sassari, held in Bancali. Both had previously been investigated for similar crimes. The other two arrested are residents of Lazio.

The investigation, which began with the analysis of a computer device seized during another operation to combat online child pornography, led to the location of 17 users in Italy believed to be sharing child pornography.

Investigators monitored the behavior of the suspected accounts for several months, finding that they were downloading and, in some cases, sharing videos and images of minors using an instant messaging application.

Further investigations led to the identification of the users, all men between the ages of 20 and 70, residing in various Italian regions, some of whom had specific criminal records. The Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Florence issued search warrants, which were executed by over 50 officers from the Postal Police of Tuscany, Sardinia, Lombardy, Campania, Sicily, Lazio, Piedmont, and Veneto, coordinated by the National Center for the Fight against Online Child Pornography (Cncpo) of the Postal Police and Cybersecurity Service.

During the operation, tens of thousands of child pornography files were found, in some cases meticulously classified by category of interest. The possession of a large quantity of material led to the arrest, in flagrante delicto, of four of the individuals subject to the measures, while the remaining suspects were charged at large, with the exception of three of them who remain untraceable.

(Unioneonline)